Tag: exercise

Sometimes, I wish that the thoughts that eat away at me could do that more literally, and specifically in the areas of my body that have more fat tissue than I’d like to have there. That would be awesome, now, wouldn’t it?

Yes, I know that I might sound a bit crazy. I certainly feel that way. I’ve felt a bit crazy for a lot of today, I suppose, but in different ways.

I’m somehow still awake after ten pm, even though I was ready to go to sleep early this afternoon. I guess it’s exhausting being so crazy. 😛 But actually, talk about an exhausting workout… try swimming again after not doing it regularly for years (except for a handful of times I did it in the fall). I swam just over half a mile in about 45 minutes. Not much for what I used to do, but huge for my recent list of aerobic activities (i.e. the occasional casual bicycle rides around the neighborhood).

**(Be prepared for some bathroom talk now, and do not read on if you don’t do well with that kind of thing.)**

After swimming, I got a smoothie with my dad (the kind with fruit and veggies, of course). It was huge. I drank the whole thing, and then realized, only as I began my half-hour drive home, that I needed to use the bathroom. I considered whether it wouldn’t be best to turn back and go ask my dad to use the bathroom there, but figured I’d be fine. When traffic hit, extending the length of the drive, I worried momentarily about whether I would have to urinate on the highway next to my car, the way my brother’s old girlfriend had once had to do. Fortunately for everyone, the traffic was a minor holdup that ended very quickly.

Now, I once was in the bathroom stall at the movie theatre, when I noticed that the lady in the stall next to mine was urinating for a very long time. I had happened to glance at my watch right as she’d begun, and so looked at it again, when I realized that she had not yet finished. I was amazed when she finally ended, well over a minute after she had begun. Talk about a lot of water. That being said, I have, ever since then, had a certain awareness of my own capacity and how it goes about being released, so to speak. The result of that smoothie today was definitely one of the greatest quantities I’ve ever managed. Not only was the pressure ridiculously high, but it lasted over half a minute!

And, as entertaining as I am certain that that all is, I do not recommend it to anyone. Having that much in the bladder at once is really quite miserable, and I hope this was the only time I must experience it.

I tried out the ninja gym again today. My brother is again in town, and one of our stepbrothers came with us to the gym to check it out. Apparently, my brother hadn’t even really considered going while he was in town this time, because of his trip being about family time and all, but he was glad that I came up with the idea, and that we turned it into family time after all.

Really, though, I didn’t just come up with the idea. I’ve been exercising specifically to help myself be able to go to the ninja gym with him the next time he was in town. I’ve slipped off the goal exercise dramatically the past two-ish weeks, but I still have done way more exercise than I was doing the first time we went together.

Now, since my brother wasn’t planning to go, he didn’t have his special shoes with him. They’re these special parkour shoes that were apparently ranked as the parkour shoe to have, but that aren’t made anymore. The soles of the shoes look like they have a car tire pasted onto them. I call them his cheater shoes (lightheartedly, of course). So, he had to be with us mere mortals today without his special shoes. (We both were laughing about it throughout the gym time.)

Our stepbrother got to nerd out with my brother in a way that made me just want to watch the two of them. They had a good time trying the different obstacles together, and they were a good matchup for it. Whatever one could do well, the other only mediocrely, and vice versa. So they got to help one another figure out things, and work through it all.

As for me, I brought my gloves, muscles, and endurance, and went for it. I didn’t attempt everything they did, for sure, but I gave a lot of things a good go. I watched for a bit to start, and then went and ran on a treadmill for a quarter mile to warm myself (it was cold today, even inside the gym). I tested obstacles I’d failed doing before, as well as loads of new ones for me, and made it through almost none. I had a really good time doing it all. My goal was not to succeed in the specific obstacles, but to attempt them, to have the ability to do something with them. I was still terrified of various things, and so still haven’t done any lâchés, but I actually got up on a bar, swung around a bit, and even considered going for the jump. I even tried a swing and jump on a ring-style lâché. I almost got it, too, but my fear got the better of me. (I actually was worried that I’d flung the ring across the room when I missed, because I was so immediately focused on landing safely, but it had only flown and landed about two feet in front of me.

So, I still had tons of fear present, and I worked through some of it anyway, and I had a great time. I can tell that this kind of thing is really a process with me, for various reasons, and I accept that. It doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on it, not at all. It is just that I have to keep making new efforts and new goals, always with the plan of going to the gym again with likely very little notice. I definitely have a goal for myself with this kind of gym. No, it is not to be like the other guys doing all the obstacles in it. Not in the least. But there are certain specific motions, movements, and obstacles I can envision myself doing… that is where I want to be with my fitness and my confidence and this gym. That’s what guides me forward in this endeavor. (Even when I have other stigmas that hold me back from my goal fitness.)

All-in-all, I had a great go my second time at the ninja gym today, and my family is still awesome – notice how we so easily turned fun exercise into family time.

My cousin wants me to start work on this work-out plan, with a very unique tie into a specialty of mine. The idea itself sounds like something totally awesome not only to create, but also to use once it is created. The task, though, feels almost daunting right now, in the midst of my minimal free/me time. I hardly get enough sleep to function decently right now, I have so little time to accomplish anything that has me feel accomplished, satisfied with my day, I have to do it all late at night before I pass out. I hardly have the time to exercise the way I want (Actually, I don’t have the time and energy to do it the way I actually want to do it, but I am finally getting in some exercise (at last!), though it has me getting to bed even later, which doesn’t help on the muscle restore front after the exercise).

I love the work I am doing right now, and I am dearly grateful for it – it is a blessing in and of itself. I am very much looking forward to what comes next, when this current job is finished. I will miss this, and I will be grateful to have moved to the next thing. It will be time. (I think that is really the main thought behind all of this right now.)

Tonight, going to bed, I feel fulfilled. Typically, I have this feeling of needing to go do something before I can end my day. I am angsty and somewhat agitated by the late afternoon, and I feel this pull from somewhere inside of me, but I can’t ever quite figure out how to follow it, how to satisfy the desire within. I notice right now that I almost didn’t even feel a pull to write anything tonight – that’s how satisfied I am with my day. It was fabulous, and so I can sleep easily, without anything else happening first. And I love writing, so that’s saying something.

Kids were unintentional rude in classes today, ignoring my pleas for quite voices, so that I could be heard with my pained, achy throat barely able to choke out words. I let them spend the time with an activity for their own benefit, and most of them ignored it or didn’t care enough about their own education to attempt the activity, which was disappointing. A few really took it on, and some decided it was time to talk with me about anything and everything in my life, while I showed them how to do some of the work. It was an odd balance of awesome and disappointing, combined with my throat being slightly consumed by a low-grade fire.

After school, I chatted with a few teachers from my own high school, plus a friend who now teaches there. That was amazing in and of itself. Add to it that I met up with a friend for tapioca tea afterward, and my day continues to improve. We ended up having dinner with the teas, and then she invited me to join a hip-hop class with her. Neither of us has ever been very good or experienced with hip-hop, but we love dancing, and we both have strong partner dance backgrounds. I have wanted to do hip-hop classes ever since my best friend and her husband started doing some over in England a few years back, because she is just plain awesome, and it is always a good idea to strive for her level of awesome. So I got to be cool like my bestie tonight, and turned out to be actually kind of good at the routine, too. The teacher even came specifically to my friend (not my best friend, but the friend with whom I had gone to the class) and me, and told us that she wanted us to join her team. (Note: Seeing as we were just discussing before the class how we hadn’t been involved in anything dance since moving back to the US (we both just returned from living in Asia), we are genuinely considering this hip-hop team idea.)

Now, I am home. I snacked on some leftovers from dinner, chatted briefly with my mom, and have just showered. I am tired, but in a really good way right now – I am satisfied. I don’t know how else to word it. I am just satisfied, which is something, I now see, that I usually am not at the end of the day. As I said to my teacher friend earlier this afternoon, I need interaction with non-teenagers. I get so much teenager interaction, and very little of anything else… and I need more than just interaction with teenagers, no matter how wonderful they are or how much we may love one another. And, tonight, I got that other interaction, plus involvement in something (the hip-hop class) and exercise. That is a really, really good combination. Now to see how to keep this up, happening much more often than once every three months.

I went to a ninja gym yesterday, and I felt very out-of-place. I was not uncomfortable, but I felt how disconnected the people in this place – this place, even – and I were. I also saw how I wanted us to be more connected, to be connected. There were plenty of things, obstacles, that did not interest me, of course, but there were significantly more that truly struck my interest. However, given that I am currently so out of shape as I am, – no, not fat, just not very fit right now – I really wasn’t able to do much with a lot of the obstacles. I envied the fun my brother had just in attempting so many of the obstacles. I want to have that kind of fun.

And so, my goal is to do some sort of upper body exercise every day (not too hard, but just enough to make habit of it), get a pair of gloves (because I am SO uninterested in having torn up or rough palms), and go back again when I feel I would have even the slightest chance of succeeding at some more of those obstacles at that ninja gym. Also, I am considering a go at some CrossFit gyms, to test it out. I might only be willing during the cooler season, but that’s better than never for something that strongly interests me (I live in Houston, recall.).

During the credits of the film “You’ve Got Mail”, there’s a song that comes on where a guy is singing about how he is going to sit right down and write himself a love letter, ‘and pretend it’s from you.’ I’ve been thinking about it since then, and I’m going to do just that for myself. I don’t know who you are, exactly, but I believe you are out there somewhere, and, if we were together – meaning a pair, duo – now, you might send me this email/letter.

-—————————–

Hey, hon.

Just sending you a quick message.

First off, I love you.
Secondly, I miss you (Duh, of course I do.). And, though we are almost literally worlds apart, I am okay, because you love me and care about me and are with me.
Thirdly, I love you. Just so we’re clear. 😉 You have developed and changed so much these past few months, and I can hardly wait to get to know and to love all the new parts there are to you. (I’m being somewhat sappy, I know, but I get to do that every so often, right? Right.)

(Now to the body paragraph(s).)

I hope you had a great day today. We’re just getting started over here, and it’s a beautiful day. How is your breathing? Short, hot, and firey today, I presume, since it was a Monday. Hopefully, you’ve stretched them out to long, slow, and deep by bedtime – I want you resting well while you are able to sleep, you know? You’ve got to take care of yourself… keep your balance, now that you’re back standing again.

By the way, I think five minutes a day dedicated to your abdomen would get you the comfort you’re wanting for your beach-going. You could do two and a half minutes just before sleeping, and another two and a half just after you wake up in the mornings. That would give you a full five, and a significant improvement for that slightly-tubbier-than-usual belly of yours. (We’ll be a rockin’ bods pair when you’re back here and we head beachside.)

When I’m stuck in the dead of winter, my body shares in that feeling of utter ugh-ness the weather brings to my mental state. It is cold and miserable outdoors right now, and my body knows it, and only wants to stay bundled up indoors, watching films until Spring shows up. Not to be cheesy, of course, but I’ll be quite ready to spring into action then, getting outdoors as much as possible each day. I feel so stagnant in the cold, and it shows on my body, as well as on my mental health.

I make sure to vary my activities, so as to keep my brain working alright in winter. Yes, I reach the downs much more often than desired, but I always manage to work through them, even if I have to ask for help to do it. However, these activities are all related to my mental health, and are usually confined to managing myself within my apartment or at work. That is to say, they are not outdoor, and therefore not very active, activities.

When the weather is decent to almost any degree, I find it so easy to be active out-of-doors. This outdoor activity is the near-entirety of my physical exercise (read “workouts”) in life. And so, when you remove these outdoor events, you remove almost all physical exercise I have in my life.

And, with that removal of exercise, comes the arrival of fat. And, as many of us know, with the new fat, comes new and lowered levels of confidence and empowerment related to my body. Sure, it’s just my winter weight, so to speak, but if I get a vacation to, say Singapore, there isn’t much delight in running around in my summer clothes that don’t quite fit the way they’re meant to fit me. (I say this, because it’s already happened, you see.) Even the loose-fitting stuff doesn’t quite fit so comfortably. Though it might still look good on me, it is difficult to be comfortable when the formerly-loose clothes feel almost binding.

Now, I don’t have anywhere in particular that I was aiming to send this writing – it was just what was on my mind tonight. I feel fat. I have more fat than I want right now. I dislike the feel and the look of it all. I long for summer and summertime activities, making it all feel even worse right now (because I’m too fat for the summer stuff right now, remember). And, despite all of this, I still have no motivation to get out in the cold – no way. 😛

I guess there’s no chance of my ever moving permanently somewhere cold. (Although, I think having a dryer, as well as cold-weather clothing that actually fit me, would make a world of a difference for me, as I was out and running regularly in the snow in Vienna.)

Anyway, … ugh. I even did a real workout today, here at home, and I’m feeling like this. Haha. What crazy minds we have, huh? Okay, I’m going to go read. Goodnight, folks!